Capt. (Ret.) Dov Shafir is a naval officer, who served in Flotilla 13 (Shayetet 13) and commended it twice 1960-1965 / 1967-1968. During his service Shafir Studied two years at Ecole superieure de guerre naval in Paris, accomplishing his M.A. Degree. Later on he became the head of the manpower division in the navy. Following his release from the IDF in 1975 he managed together with Brigadier Daniel Shimshonii a strategic consulting agency called STRATIS, which was founded by Sam Zax, a Chicago banker. The agency conduct research for IDF General Avraham Tamir that was passed to Ret General Aaron Yariv from Tel Aviv University. Shafir served as a board member of Teva pharmaceutical industries from 1975-2007. He is currently a member of the Ashkelon Academic College managerial board, and a trustee of the University of Haifa. In 2014 he along with Prof. Fred Tauber – president of the University of Haifa, funded the center for maritime strategy, and convinced Rear Admiral (Ret.) Prof. Shaul Chorev to lead it. Over the years Shaffir donated scholarships to students of sea-related fields of science. In 2014 he became the largest benefactor to the restoration of the ancient ship in Ma’agan Michael – lead by the department of marine civilization and initiated by Prof Yacov Cahanov – and helped recruit additional donators.
